


This Flight Tonight

by setissma



Series: Polaris (Triad Version) [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-26
Updated: 2016-12-26
Packaged: 2018-09-12 08:40:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9064528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/setissma/pseuds/setissma
Summary: The first Sorting is always the hardest.





	

“Pansy, please tell me you haven’t left yet, I can’t find my bloody tie and someone’s misspelled –“ Harry started, pushing open the door to the highest floor of the tower, and then stopped abruptly when his daughter, who was sitting on the couch amidst a sea of parchment, burst into abrupt tears.

“Oh dear,” Thaxia said.

“Alcyone!” Harry said. “You’re supposed to – I thought you wanted to cross the lake with the other first years. Your dad’s going to meet the train, hasn’t he left already?”

“N-no,” she said, hiccupping, and Thaxia ran over, nosing in her robes. “I m-mean yes, dad left, no, I didn’t want to go. I mean… I wanted to go, but I –“ She burst into another round of tears.

“Sorcha!” Thaxia said. “You have to make yourself something big enough to find, or I can’t do anything at all.”

“Oh, all right,” Sorcha said, creeping out of Alcyone’s sleeve as the smallest vole Harry had ever seen, and turned into a smaller version of Thaxia, though her fur was much lighter.

“Better,” Thaxia said, and immediately set about grooming her face. “Harry! Do something.”

“Yes, Thaxia, thank you,” Harry said, dryly, and came to kneel in front of Alcyone, who had obviously been crying for quite a while; her perfect braid had partially fallen to pieces, her face was puffy, and her eyes were red.

“Mum’s in her office,” she said. “Practicing her speech. And your tie’s on the bed, she said dad and I should tell you that had to wear the red and gold one if we saw you, which we shouldn’t do, because you should already be downstairs, but you’d probably forget your tie because Sirius is – I don’t know, a corrugated tie thief.”

“Incorrigible,” Harry corrected, wrapping his arms around her to pull her into a hug. “Though I rather think my tie’s not the most important thing at the moment. What’s wrong?”

“I have too many owls,” she said, looking extremely stressed, which was a rare sight with Alcyone. Harry wasn’t certain he’d seen her cry in the last year or two, including when she’d fallen off a broomstick and broken her arm.

“Too many owls?” Harry said, gently.

“Letters,” Sorcha mumbled, around Thaxia. 

“Too many letters,” Harry said. “Sweetheart, what do you mean that you’ve got too many letters?”

“I mean, they don’t make sense,” she said, taking a breath. “Grandmother Malfoy said congratulations on being sorted into the _superior_ house of Slytherin, and Gram said congratulations on Gryffindor. Teddy and Victorie said congratulations because every house was good so I’d do great and they loved me and that I should have fun at the feast and they’d see me next weekend if I came to supper and that Remy would be excited to see me, but I heard Aunt Hermione and Aunt Fleur talking about it and _they_ said they were sure, only they didn’t say which house, and what if the Hat gets _stuck_ and I _break_ it?”

She burst into tears again, and Harry made a mental note to send howlers to Narcissa and Molly and something nice to Teddy and Victorie. Chocolates, maybe. A useful plant.

“Aly,” he said, leaning in to kiss her forehead. “We’ve talked about this. Your house is only important for where you live and Quidditch, your mum and dad and I do not care the smallest bit which one you end up in.” He pulled her into a hug. “And neither do your Aunt Hermione and Aunt Fleur, nor does anyone else.”

“But what about the letters?” Alcyone said, sniffing. “How on earth can they know if I’ve gotten sorted into Gryffindor and Slytherin? Is that magic? I can’t be in both at once, can I?”

Harry managed not to swear under his breath, and hugged her again. She started again before he could say anything.

“And the assessment’s _always_ after dinner but mum’s moved it to _tomorrow_ with our Head of _House_ and now I won’t be able to sleep at all,” she said. “I still don’t see why I couldn’t just take it early.”

“Well, because you’ve already got a bit of a leg up,” Harry said, gently. He didn’t point out that having two professors and the headmistress for parents and having grown up in the castle was quite a lot more than a _bit_. “You have to be fair to the other students. They need you to show them how things are done, don’t they?”

“I suppose,” Alcyone agreed. “But what about the letters?”

“Sometimes it’s fun for grandparents to think that you might get sorted into the same house that they were in,” Harry said, carefully. “It’s been a long time since they were in school, they remember how much fun they had, and they’d like you to have fun too, all right? So they’re only excited for you. Just like Teddy and Victorie.”

“It doesn’t matter, really,” Harry said. “Look, if you’re in Gryffindor your cousin Rose will be very excited, and if you’re in Ravenclaw you’ve got Hugo and Louis, and if you’re in Slytherin there’s Dominique, all right? And you have lots of friends in Hufflepuff too.”

“Are you sure mum and dad won’t care?” she said, biting the corner of her lip. “And you won’t? You joke about that stuff all the time. And what if Gemma’s not in the same house as me next year?”

“We do,” Harry said, kissing her forehead. “And it’s only _joking_ , because it’s been years and years since we were in school and things are different now, all right? And if Genevieve isn’t in the same house, it’s not as if you still won’t see each other all the time anyway. But your mum thinks she will be, and we all know your mum’s never wrong about anything.” He nudged her, hoping for a smile.

Alcyone sighed. “I know,” she said. “I’m more worried about the assessment. What if my magic turns out to be awful and all divination oriented or something and I have to take all my classes with Professor Lisse?”

Harry bit back a snort. “Alcyone,” he said, trying not to laugh. “Do you really think that’s likely?”

“Oh, all right, no,” she said, grumbling. “I explode things too often and I’ve never seen anything in tea leaves in my whole life.”

“You know you get a say what classes you go in, regardless of what your magic’s like,” he said, firmly. “And you know you get assessed every year to see if anything’s changed, so you’re not stuck with anything forever. And you know that we love you. Even if you turn out to be extraordinarily skilled at Divination.”

“Gemma and Sirius will be there, won’t they?” she said. “For dinner, at least? And I can say goodnight if I want?”

“Well, sort of,” Harry said. “You know Gemma will come see the Sorting and Sirius can come if he’s behaving like a human and not a tiny monster, but they’re going to eat dinner with Aunt Hermione and Uncle Ron and Aunt Fleur. And your mum and dad and I will come say goodnight before you go with your housemates, all right?”

She inhaled. “And if it’s Gryffindor or Slytherin you or dad will take me?”

“With everyone else,” Harry reassured her, kissing her forehead. “And Crookshanks and Mehitabel will come sleep in your bed tonight with you and Sorcha. Aunt Hermione promised, remember?”

“Yes,” Alcyone said, looking a bit better.

“We don’t care,” Harry said, firmly, tilting her face up to meet her grey eyes. “Squidlet, any house, any classes, no matter what, you’re our daughter and we love you.”

“We do,” Thaxia agreed. “Harry, fix her hair, I’ll find your tie.”

“You want your braid back like mum did it?” Harry said, gently. “That looked nice.”

“Yeah,” Alcyone said. “Sorcha was hiding in it for a bit.”

“I wasn’t hiding,” she protested. “I was finding a good vantage point.”

“Well, pick something good,” Thaxia said. “No more rodents. And don’t think I haven’t noticed you making yourself small this week. Kit and Lethe will scold you too if you go as a mouse.”

Harry snorted. “We will love you even if Sorcha ends up as a mouse,” he said. “Though I don’t think she will be.” He waved a hand over her hair, putting it back into the braid Pansy had carefully spent half an hour on, and tucked a stray blonde curl behind her ear, murmuring a charm to cool her face.

“I think I’ll go as a white fox,” Sorcha decided. “You can’t complain about that.”

“No, that’s a good choice,” Thaxia said, approvingly, returning with Harry’s tie and giving her a final lick behind the ears. “Very brave and cunning, but not too big. So you can sit on Aly’s lap during the Sorting.”

“I’d like that,” Aly said.

“There you go,” Harry said, reaching up to put his tie on.

“Oh, you’re hopeless,” Alcyone said, with a sigh, reaching up to do it for him. “Mum’s right. Well, hopeless about ties, anyway.”

“Bested by my eleven year old daughter at tie knots,” Harry teased. “Maybe you can take a course on that.”

“Shut it, I can already do it,” Alcyone said, laughing. “So I don’t need a class, _you_ do.” 

“If I haven’t figured it out by now, I’m never going to,” Harry said, laughing too. He shrugged into his dress robes. “Now come on, if we’re late getting you downstairs your mum _and_ dad will kill me.”

“It’s all well and good for _you_ , da,” she said, hopping off the sofa. “You just have to read a list of names.”

“A very long list, none of which I can mispronounce,” Harry said. “I’ll walk you downstairs, but then you’ve got to go find your dad and the other first years or wait for them where we talked about, all right? I have to talk to mum about the list, some of the names aren’t spelled properly.”

“Mine had better be,” she said. “Alcyone Iris Malfoy-Potter, it’s not very difficult.”

Harry snorted. “No, not in the least,” he said. “Now _go_ , your mum’s already about to lose her head over this being her first year as Headmistress, the last thing we need is for her to think you’ve gone missing. Thaxia and I are right behind you until we get downstairs.”

Harry shooed her along, waving as she rounded the corner, and then went for Pansy’s office.

“Oh, Harry,” she said, when he opened the portrait. “You’re incredibly late, and I think I’ve got to revise this again, I found a split infinitive. And I’m going to have to –“ She turned to look at him. “Thank god, at least I don’t have to redo your tie.”

“Please tell her the speech is fine,” Kit said, lying under her desk. “I’m on the verge of death from boredom.”

“It’s fine,” Harry said, and crossed the room to pull her into a hug. “Hi, Headmistress Malfoy.”

“Oh, stop that, you’ll muck up my robes and my hair and my make up,” Pansy said, sounding suspiciously like she was sniffling.

“And then I’ll put them back with a straightening charm,” Harry said, reasonably.

“Like hell you will,” Pansy said, laughing. “Where were you?”

“Mentally composing howlers to Narcissa and Molly,” Harry said. “Apparently everyone’s gone and congratulated Aly already. On different houses. She had a bit of a panic attack over it. But it’s sorted. And Sorcha’s not in hiding as a vole any more.”

“No, she’s an arctic fox,” Thaxia said. “I told her no more rodents.”

“Bugger that,” Pansy said. “I’ll send them myself. Hermione has Sirius and Genevieve?”

“Or Fleur,” Harry said. “They’re all together. I promised Gemma she could watch from the back.” He paused. “I think she’s hoping for excitement, it’s sort of a pity, really.”

“Oh, shut up, anything could happen,” Pansy said, laughing, and Harry rolled his eyes.

“I have never met anyone more like you,” he said. “I’m not going to argue with the Hat, but I suspect that’s a bit telling.”

“Yes, she’s very likely to be a Hufflepuff,” Thaxia said, hopping up to straighten one of Pansy’s curls carefully. “Calm down, Pansy.”

“God, what a mess,” she said. “How’d this all end up happening the same bloody year?”

“I don’t know, we lacked the foresight to know what McGonagall was going to be doing more than a decade in advance when we planned having a baby, and then the Hat got all uppity about things and shuffled us around?” He sighed. “I was really hoping it would choose Bill for Head of Gryffindor, you know. He’s so –“

“Lacking in seniority?” Pansy said, dryly.

“By that definition, Draco ought to be reading this bloody list of names,” Harry muttered. “Or Lisse. This Deputy Headmaster thing is even worse.”

Pansy snorted. “You know Draco didn’t want it. And in the event that I am incapacitated, if we’re leaving Lisse in charge of the school, I’m transferring all our children to Beauxbatons.” 

“We could have done that anyway,” Harry pointed out, laughing.

“No,” Pansy said, firmly. “Even Fleur admits we’re better these days. By a large margin. And I’m not letting my children go off to France.”

“Not a chance in hell,” Thaxia said. “They’d be alone and frightened.”

Harry laughed. “You know, nearly every other student here has done just fine without three parents and an uncle on the faculty to supervise them,” he said, mildly.

“And we’ve all taken oath potions to grade her fairly and honestly and to give appropriate disciplinary actions or commendations, and none of us can take away or give her points without the agreement of an unrelated second party,” Pansy said, firmly. “We’ve already had this argument a hundred thousand times, would you just go over my speech?”

“Yes, for the hundred thousandth time,” Harry teased. “I need you to go over the list, unless we’ve actually got an Ejssica, something’s gone wrong with the spell.”

“Oh, bloody hell, and you’re telling me this _now_?” Pansy said. “I gave you this hours ago!”

“Little busy calming down Draco and all of our children,” Harry said.

“All of them, really?” Kit said, sounding amused. “Is Sirius pitching a fit over all of this as well?”

“He’s three, he pitches fits over not being held by the right person,” Harry said, dryly. “Gemma was an excellent baby, you know. We can blame Draco for these things.”

“Oh, stuff it,” Pansy said, peering at the list. “It’s just transposing wrong from the Ministry Registry, is all. I’d better ask Hermione.”

“Oh, yes, _do_ let Sirius see you, that hasn’t the potential to go horrifically wrong at _all_ ,” he said.

“All right, you go ask Hermione, if he gets upset, er,” she paused. “You can read a list with the baby, can’t you?”

“Or I’ll foist him off on Draco,” Harry said. “Toddler at the head table, what could possibly go wrong?”

“Harry!” she said. “This is not helping.”

Harry laughed, pulling her in for another hug. “I love you, you’ll be brilliant, your speech is brilliant, Draco and Alcyone will both calm down once she’s sorted, and then we’ll eat great food and enjoy ourselves and you can get rid of all your adrenaline in productive ways once the kids are in bed.”

“Oh, shut it,” Pansy said, shoving his shoulder, but she’d started to laugh. “Everyone’s been too traumatized for that sort of thing.”

“I know, I’d sort of like to get laid,” Harry teased. “You know, congratulations on the whole Head of House thing for Draco and Deputy Headmaster thing for me. It’s very prestigious, you know. Almost as prestigious as our wife’s position.”

“You’re impossible,” Pansy said, fondly, wrapping her arms around his neck.

“I’m corrugated,” Harry said, laughing.

“Like cardboard?” Pansy said.

“Aly mixed up that and incorrigible earlier,” Harry said, laughing. “Apparently her brother earned one of those. Although she might have been right, it occurred to me that it wouldn’t surprise me if you threatened to turn him into cardboard.”

“He tried to eat something in Draco’s office,” Pansy said, rolling her eyes. “I mean, it’s all Sirius-proofed, but apparently Draco was attached to that particular plant or something.”

“Look, we’ve got one kid who’s you, one kid who’s me and Draco, and one kid who’s a changeling and was switched at birth for a monster from the depths of the Amazon or something,” Harry said, laughing. “The fact that he looks exactly like Draco is _entirely_ incidental, that’s how changelings work.”

“He’s awful,” Kit agreed. “But you five would be all maudlin about the girls sleeping away from the tower next year, so it’s good that he’s around.”

“Oh, yes, you wouldn’t mind in the slightest if they were both gone and Sirius weren’t around,” Thaxia said, dryly.

“Look, in another seven or eight years, you can start mucking about with fertility rituals and cancel out your contraceptive potion by accident, and then Draco can get you up the duff again while Harry’s meandering around in South America looking for rare magical toads,” Kit said, innocently. “It’ll keep everyone sane and happy. It worked well last time, why mess with success?”

“Okay, one, they were snakes, and two, it’s hardly my fault I asked Draco for theoretical knowledge about something and he gave me some ovulation inducing orchid thing,” Pansy said. “And three, it’s Harry’s turn if we’re having another.”

“Fine, we’ll send Draco to collect cacti in the Sonoran and Harry can give you a fertility snake, there’s got to be one of those for the sheer obviousness of it,” Kit said. “It’s the same formula. Roughly.”

“Oh no,” Harry said. “Three is the perfect number of children. We’re not having more just because you miss babies. You have Andromeda to borrow from Teddy and Victorie.”

“Oh, I suppose,” Pansy said, with a sigh. “It’s sort of the same. Except for how I only get to see her when Teddy and Victorie come for Sunday dinner or to visit Bill _and_ I have to share her with Fleur because blah blah actual grandmother blah. I should get more time.”

“Yes, well, talk to Draco about it, you know the rules,” Harry said, trying not to laugh. “If you two vote yes on a fourth, I will _converse_ with you about it. But at the moment, we need to get the _first_ one Sorted, so are you ready?”

“Oh god,” Pansy said, taking a breath. “No. But I suppose you sort of have to get used to this thing.”

“And you want to live through it _four_ times,” Harry pointed out, laughing. “Come on, sweetheart. Draco’s probably about to pass out from nerves, and he’s waiting with the first years. You want to go lead in everyone else and I’ll go give him a hand?”

“Yes, good plan,” Pansy said, firmly, pulling him in for a long hug. “Aside from the bit where I’ve got to be apart from you two. Do I look all right?”

“Ravishing,” Harry said, laughing. He leaned in for a kiss. “And your speech is grammatically correct and quite nice and more to the point, brief, so no one is going to starve.”

“Yes, I did think –“ Pansy said, and Harry kissed her again to shut her up.

“Go on,” he said affectionately. “Go be you, the students will be delighted to see you.”

Harry got Pansy out of her office, still protesting over her list, and shooed her toward the staff lounge, going toward the main hall.

“Oh thank god,” Draco said, when he saw him, then paused, glancing at the students. Harry was simultaneously happy and dismayed to see a tiny sea of them – student numbers were much better since the war, but every so often they got a rather large class, and it was always hell for the first few weeks. “I’m glad you’re all right, I was worried. You’re late.”

“And you’re soaking wet, what did you do, capsize something?” Harry said, waving his hand to cast a drying charm. Lethe looked alarmingly fluffy for a moment before she shook it off, muttering something under her breath.

“Sort of, someone inadvertently summoned a wave, I’d really rather not talk about it,” Draco said, giving a strong look to a small girl with braids who looked just as soaked as he’d been.

“Good wandless, at least,” Harry said, cheerfully. He waved at Alcyone, who glared and pointedly ignored him in favor of chatting with a small gaggle of the new students. From the way she was gesturing, Harry had a sinking feeling that he knew who was going to win any first year popularity contests. “Oh, I see we’ve become embarrassing already.”

“We’ve also been bragged about, so I’ve no idea how that works,” Draco said, dryly. “Sorcha said hello to Lethe, at least.”

“She’d better,” Thaxia said, peering around. “Oh, good, still a fox.”

“She was a tiger ten minutes ago,” Draco said. “Something about a ban on rodents.”

“I’ll tell you later,” Harry said, shaking his head.

“We’re sending howlers to your mother and Molly at two in the morning,” Thaxia said, cheerfully. “I’m going to do that fun shrieking thing in the background. I bet Lethe will howl.”

Draco paused. “I’d ask, but it would probably go badly,” he said.

“Yeah, let’s not,” Harry said. “On the bright side, Pansy was still alive and in one piece when she left her office, so I think we might make it through this.”

“Yes, and then I’m drink-“ Draco paused, glancing at a few of the children who were watching him. “I suppose I might have a glass of wine after the feast tonight when we get home.”

“Look, Pansy will be brilliant, I’m not going to muck up any names aside from pausing for an extremely long time over Alcyone’s because I’m her father and we’re supposed to torment our children, and there will be sticky toffee pudding, so I think we ought to take pleasure in the small things.”

“Basically, you’re about to puke and so’s Pansy,” Draco said. 

“Basically,” Harry agreed. “Oh, and Sirius turned Fleur’s hair purple and no one can quite figure out how to get it back, but apparently she thinks it’s hilarious. Hermione’s hoping you or Pansy can fix it.”

“Why did we ever decide to have children?” Draco mused.

“Pansy wants another,” Harry said, laughing.

“Oh god, not tonight,” Draco said. “She might just be all…” He gestured at Alcyone.

“Uh huh,” Harry said. “I suppose I can’t call her squidlet on the podium.”

“I don’t think she’d ever forgive you, no,” Draco said.

“You’re the one who gets to assess her tomorrow,” Harry said. “Have loads of fun with that. She’s afraid she’ll have to take Divination.”

Draco turned a snort into a cough. “Just you wait, it’ll be you.”

Harry rolled his eyes. “I am not a betting man,” he said. “But I really don’t think we’re in for any surprises tonight.”

“No, me either,” Draco admitted. “But she’ll shock us all and come out a Hufflepuff, you watch.”

“You and Thaxia,” Harry said, with a laugh. “Do you want help getting this lot in there?”

“I’m all right,” Draco said. “Go get the Hat and then make sure Pansy hasn’t fainted or something. I’ll see you at the table.”

“Love you,” Harry said, leaning in for a kiss. “Try not to lose any of them, will you?”

Even if summers were peaceful and far less chaotic, Harry always missed the students; it was nice to come into the Great Hall and find it full of people. Hermione and Genevieve waved from the back, Kerr flying above as a raven and then diving back down, presumably to report something. Fleur was obviously distracted by bouncing Sirius and telling him about things he was pointing at. So far, he mostly looked in awe of the Great Hall, which meant that he was more likely to behave and that Alcyone was unlikely to panic, so Harry heaved a sigh of relief and set the Hat carefully on its stool. The other teachers were trickling in, and Pansy came in last to riotous cheers and a few wolf whistles from the seventh year Slytherins. Harry shot them a look, but she was laughing.

“Don’t make me take points before we’ve even started, Aiden,” she called. “You know I’ll do it. I can always make someone else Head Boy.”

“No, you’ll make Professor Potter do it,” Aiden called back, with a grin. “Because everyone knows you’d just have to give them back again because of how charming and fit I am, and that would be favoritism.”

“Or I could just take the points because you’re trying to get cozy with my wife,” Harry said, laughing too. “Try not to get detention before we’ve started, will you?”

“Can you blame me?” Aiden said, with another grin. He was _hopeless_.

“For your taste in women?” Harry said. “No, it’s impeccable. For your sense of decorum? Yes, it’s utterly lacking.”

“I’ll take points,” Thaxia muttered, leaping to Pansy’s shoulders.

“Oh, here for moral support, are you?” Pansy said.

“Kit’s just going to lurk under the table like always,” Thaxia pointed out. “ _One_ of us has to enjoy your speech.”

Draco stuck his head in through the doors with a gesture, and the extremely large group of first years filed in to more cheers. Alcyone was somewhere in the middle, her light blonde hair standing out. Harry resisted the urge to wave, which probably wouldn't earn him any favors.

“All right, all right,” Pansy called, tapping on her throat to amplify her voice. “If you could all be so kind as to sit down and shut up?”

There was laughter, and another round of applause and cheers.

“Five points from every house for an inability to stop creating mayhem,” she joked. “You may have them back if it’s quiet in thirty seconds.”

Everyone settled in, and Harry headed down the platform with his newly corrected list.

“Everyone, welcome back, first years, welcome to Hogwarts,” Pansy said, with a smile. “I’m Headmistress Malfoy, and it’s my first year too, so I can assure you, I took my turn with the Sorting Hat this year as well. This is Anathaxia, my husband’s daemon, who has kindly agreed to help welcome you since mine is refusing to come out from under the table. The older students know Kit’s love of social functions.”

There was more laughter and a few of the first years looked _slightly_ less terrified. Harry bit back a laugh when he overheard Alcyone, a little too loud, telling the person next to her in line, “That’s my mum!”

“There are quite a few of you, so I’d like to get started so we can eat sooner rather than later,” Pansy said. “Everyone here knows the rules, but just in case you’ve forgotten, cheering is welcome from every table, and you know I expect a warm welcome for your new housemates. Please be quiet while the Hat is working. Aiden Fisher, our Head Boy in Slytherin, and Niamh Walsh, our Head Girl in Hufflepuff, will be helping if anyone has trouble. Deputy Headmaster Potter, who teaches Potions and Care of Magical Creatures and is the Head of Gryffindor House, is going to be assisting with the Sorting.” She smiled. “The Sorting Hat will know where you belong, so try not to be too nervous.”

“Just a minute, please, Headmistress,” Niamh said, standing up with a wave. Aiden stood too. “Since you can’t get a welcome from your house, we wanted to welcome you to Hogwarts.” There were a few cheers, and she grinned. “Well, as Headmistress, anyway.”

“Ready, everyone?” Aiden said, and though it took a minute, the students stood, even the second years. “ _Lumos vehere_.”

“ _Lumos vehere_ ,” Niamh said, clearly, after him, pointing her wand at the ceiling, and then the rest of the students followed her lead. Even the second years – though a few needed a little help – sent tiny glowing fairy lights up above, until the entire ceiling of the hall was filled with them.

“Oh,” Pansy said, looking enchanted then blinking rapidly – Harry was reasonably certain she was going to cry anyway. “That’s lovely. Thank you all. I suppose now I haven’t got any excuse to be nervous, so no one else has either.”

“Fifty-five points to each house to make up for losing five earlier,” Harry said, with a smile. “And five each to our Head Boy and Girl, since I’m going to assume they organized this.”

Niamh blushed and sat down, and Pansy took the moment of distraction to wipe her eyes. “Right, Harry, get on with it,” she said, laughing.

Pansy had obviously talked the Hat into a short song, since it was a condensed version of the usual few verses about the houses, though Harry couldn’t help but notice that in recent years it had taken to talking about Slytherins as “true” and using words like “solidarity” and “fellowship.” It was something of a pleasant change.

Draco was near the front of the line, pointing the first little girl at Harry, and he picked up the Hat.

“Andrews, Eva Claire, with Aryx,” he called, and she and her daemon – currently a cat – came running toward him. 

“Okay, no rush,” he said, laughing, and offered her a hand to help her up, giving her a minute to settle in with her daemon. “Ready?”

“Ready!” she said, and he put the Hat on.

It took a minute, but the Hat finally yelled, “Gryffindor!” and Harry pointed to the table, pitching his voice over thunderous applause. “Congratulations! I’ll see you later tonight.”

He already so used to the pattern that he very nearly didn’t notice when he was about to call Alcyone. He frowned at his paper for a moment, shuffling it, then gave her a wink.

“Malfoy-Potter, Alcyone Iris, with Sorcha,” he called. She stole a hug from Draco and came over, Sorcha hopping up into her lap, still a white fox. Gemma waved wildly from the back, Hermione clapped while Fleur whistled, and even Sirius looked fascinated. Fleur tried to get him to wave, but he pointed instead, which Harry figured was as good as they were going to get from a toddler.

“You promise it doesn’t matter?” she said, biting the corner of her lip.

“Not one bit,” Harry said, firmly. “We love you. Ready?”

“Not really, but it’s my turn,” she said, making him laugh, and he set the hat on her head.

Harry wasn’t particularly surprised when it only took a few seconds to call, “Slytherin!”

“Oh!” she said, sounding happy. “Like mum and dad and Dominique and –“

The applause from every single table was nearly deafening, which wasn’t surprising either – most of these students had watched Alcyone grow up. Harry crouched to sweep her into a hug, invariably breaking protocol, but he had a feeling Pansy wasn’t too likely to hassle him over it. “Love you, squidlet,” he murmured. “We’re really proud, Aly.” He laughed – Bill was definitely making fun of Pansy for crying, though Harry nearly was too. “Go find your table. Bet Dominique wants to say hi.”

“Yeah!” Alcyone said, and literally headed for Slytherin at a run, making everyone laugh again.

“Sorry,” he called, to the other first years. “In case you couldn’t tell from the last name, that happens to be our kid. But anyone else who needs a hug is welcome to one.”

That got him plenty of laughter, and Harry managed to get the whole thing done fairly quickly. Pansy would have been faster, but she had practice.

“Congratulations on your new houses!” she said. “I’m looking forward to an exciting year, although not _too_ exciting, please. Now if you’d please make sure to include the first years when you’re passing dishes, let’s eat!”

“Oh, thank god, food,” Harry said, flopping into his seat beside her. Draco took her other side a minute later while Harry took an enormous gulp of his wine.

“And exactly no one is surprised by that outcome,” Draco said, sounding amused. “Look, she’s already finding minions.”

“Well, your mother will be pleased with it,” Harry said, sounding innocent, and Draco rolled his eyes and tossed a piece of roll at him. “And you get all the joy of assessing her tomorrow.”

Pansy laughed, waving as Genevieve waved a final time and went out. “Am I seeing things, or does Fleur have purple hair? Is she taking a leaf out of Teddy’s book?”

“We make excellent kids,” Harry said, with a grin. “The first one’s probably convincing everyone to do her bidding and the third’s apparently learning about turning things new colors.”

“Damn it,” Pansy said. “Well, I guess we’ll sort it out after.”

“We will indeed,” Harry said, laughing. “And look, one down, three to go.”

“You’d better be careful, she’ll take you up on it,” Draco said, laughing.

“Probably,” Pansy said. “Well, they don’t seem to hate me.”

Harry rolled his eyes, gesturing to the giant expanse of lights. “Yes, that seems like a gesture of complete apathy to me, really.”

“Hey, look at it this way,” Draco said. “Alcyone’s in the house we’ve known she’d be in since she was about three months old, Harry managed to read an entire list without keeling over, I didn’t fall in the lake, everyone loves Pansy, and all we’ve got to do before we go to bed is herd a quarter each of the first years to their towers and fix Fleur’s hair.”

“And convince Sirius that sleeping is a good idea,” Pansy said.

“No, I temporarily sorted that while you were drafting eight-hundred copies of your speech, I made part of one of the walls next to his bed a glow beetle habitat,” Harry said. “Literally not a peep after his bedtime stories.”

“He’s named _all_ of them,” Draco said. “We had to go through it twice while he got dressed this morning. There’s mum and dad and Gemma and Aly and I’m pretty sure there’s one named Potion and another named Snitch.” He paused. “Actually, Snitch is sort of a neat name. And the worst part is that he can tell them all apart. _I_ can’t even tell the bloody things apart. Tierney kept correcting me. She is, by the way, enjoying being a glow beetle.”

“I figure once the novelty wears off we’ll just switch him to fire salamanders or those crazy night-blooming cactus things Draco has that go insane colors when bats get near them. I’ve got plenty of bats.”

“So basically, you’ve bribed the three year old with pets, and now a beetle is named after me,” Pansy said. “Sort of.”

“Pretty much, yeah,” Harry said. “I like sleep. Also sex. I figure beetles are totally a fair trade there.”

“Completely voting with Harry on that one,” Draco said. “Outnumbered. No calling us bad parents.”

Pansy laughed. “If it keeps him from waking up at four in the morning and tripping over Kit on his way into our bed, I’m all in favor,” she said. “He does like interesting objects more than the girls did.”

“So by interesting, you mean shiny or rather lit up,” Harry said, and gestured to the ceiling. “I have never, ever met any other Malfoys with that trait, ever. Said my wife with a necklace, a giant ring, and an entire ceiling of tiny lights, and my husband who’s got a bed growing of flowers that actually _sparkle_.”

“Oh, shut up, they’re endangered,” Draco said, with a grin. “Actually, we ought to find out, bet you anything Fleur’s hair grows in the dark.”

“Oh, hell,” Harry said. “I bet he’s gone and done something stupid like copied the bioluminescence chemicals.”

“Oh, thank god, that’s an easy fix,” Draco said. “I have a potion that’s basically soap for that. Every single year I tell them not to piss off the squid bromeliads while we’re coaxing the new crop to a new tree, and what do they do?”

“Piss them off,” Harry said. “And get themselves covered in bioluminescent slime. We will _not_ be putting any of those in Sirius’s room, for all I know, he’ll figure out how to throw bromeliad ink at people.”

“Seriously, if I hadn’t given birth to him, I would state that I contributed absolutely nothing to that child,” Pansy said, laughing. “He’s lucky we love him.”

“You two idiots named him,” Harry said. “Ooh, look, dessert.”

“It was _meant_ as a nice gesture to value your family history, Harry,” Pansy said, laughing.

“Yes, and I’m arranging a three year field season when he turns sixteen or so,” Harry teased. “And locking up the motorbike. It’ll need to go in one of those double walled ones at Gringotts.”

“At least he’s bright,” Draco said. “We definitely know toddlers who aren’t.”

“And Remy throws fire at random objects when she’s angry and he hasn’t picked up that trick yet,” Harry agreed. “Veela thing, apparently.”

“I wasn’t aware Remy ever _got_ angry,” Pansy said. “She’s like a second Gemma’s come along, except she’s much better with being held by strangers. She never cries.”

“Apparently she’s going through a bit of a stubborn phase at the moment, according to Teddy,” Harry said, laughing. “Pascha likes turning into things with sharp teeth. Teddy says he’ll bite anyone who tries to do something Remy doesn’t like. And that, at the moment, her doesn’t like list is very long and includes diaper changes and being held by the wrong parent, which seems to be determined on a minute by minute basis.”

“You did offer to watch her for Teddy and Victorie for their anniversary?” Pansy said. “Fleur says she and Andromeda have all the details of their surprise trip sorted out. I guess we’re just left with figuring out how to stop her screaming for three days.”

“Yes, and no, I did not tell them anything, I just said I thought it might be nice for them to have a weekend away from the baby so they could get some sleep,” Harry said. “He said he was going to talk to Victorie, she’s apparently worrying over the idea of three entire nights away from her.”

Pansy laughed. “Retrospectively, having Gemma when Alcyone was only one was brilliant, it meant that I just flung them at anyone who offered to let me sleep. I’d probably have given them both to the first years by about a week after Gemma was born.”

Harry finished off his pudding. “Could we all skip worrying about it for months beforehand next year and agree she’s going to be a Slytherin? Like I _tried_ to get everyone to do this year?”

“I don’t know, sometimes it likes family legacies,” Draco said.

“And what was Pansy, exactly, an incubator?” Harry said, laughing. “Gemma’s mum’s a Slytherin, her dad’s a Slytherin, she has plenty of family legacy.”

“More to the point, she’s a Slytherin,” Kit said, from under the table. 

“Huh,” Harry said. “I never thought to ask. Do you guys know as well as the Hat does?”

“No,” Kit said. “But we’re her parents and Kerr’s parents and we can feel around the edges a bit more.” He shrugged. “You just know. Just like I know Kerr’s going to pick something sooner than Sorcha is.”

“You mean comparatively?” Pansy said.

“No, next year or second year, probably, give or take some,” Thaxia said. “Sorcha will be longer.”

“That bit’s creepy,” Harry said. “Do I want to know why?”

“You can see it,” Thaxia said. “It’s like… I don’t know. You just can.”

“It’s sort of like a pulse,” Lethe offered. “It’s almost too fast to keep track of when they’re little, and then as they get older you’ll notice there are some forms they’ll just never take, it’s like they’ve decided against those branches, and their heart beat slows a bit, and then eventually it just… settles in with the heart in their human body. Kerr’s theoretical heart rate is much slower than Sorcha’s.” She yawned.

“So – you know, all the time I spent _totally panicking_ about when you’d stop changing,” Pansy said. “Utterly pointless?”

“You can’t see it for yourself, and you can’t…” Kit considered. “You can only see it if a child lets you know their daemon. Of course we know our children and the daemons in our family. With the students who spend a lot of time with you, we can usually tell. It’s not as clear, but you have a general idea.”

“That’s an adult daemon secret,” Thaxia said. “You can’t tell any of them they’re getting close to choosing, you might influence it. But you can sort of see it start to happen. Kerr hasn’t picked anything that didn’t have some spine to it in ages.”

“I hadn’t noticed, but he hasn’t,” Draco said. “’Though she be but little, she is fierce.’”

“Exactly,” Thaxia said, approvingly. “They’ll find something good.”

“We did tell them we’d love them even if they came out as toads,” Pansy said.

“At this point, I think Tierney might be a hurricane,” Draco joked. “But a glow beetle will do for now, I suppose.”

“Quit rushing it,” Harry said, laughing, and propped his head in his hand, watching Alcyone tell an animated story to a group that included students from most years. Dominique was sitting next to her, looking both proud and very amused. “They’ll get there. “

“Oh, I suppose,” Pansy said. “It’s so odd to see her down there and to know she won’t be at home tonight and that she’s not really a little girl anymore.”

“Well, she’ll be at home,” Harry corrected. “Just not in _our_ home.”

“At least until next year when she can pick where she wants to stay on weekends,” Draco said, laughing. “Then she might be both.”

“No, you’ll just be forever hauling Aly out of the first year dorm or Gemma out of the second year,” Harry said, cheerfully. “Thank god I feel completely confident that none of that is ever going to be my problem.”

“There’s Sirius,” Pansy pointed out.

“I thought we agreed we were sending him to North America,” Draco teased. “You know, an entire ocean between us and him.”

“Pretty sure he’ll outgrow it,” Harry said. “Three year old boys don’t have a reputation for being perfectly well behaved. I’m sure by the time he’s eleven, he’ll be quite good.”

“Then he’s going to be an _eleven_ year old boy,” Pansy said, rolling her eyes. “With their reputation for being exceptionally well mannered.”

“And still Draco’s problem unless he does something so egregious it warrants parental involvement,” Harry said, cheerfully. “This whole reproducing with Slytherins thing was an excellent plan. Oh, someone remind me to owl the Prophet tonight with a statement about how happy I am to see Aly in a house that represents such positive traits that I love dearly in my spouses.”

“He really does enjoy just screwing with the media,” Draco said, with a sigh. “At least say something about the Dark Wizard reputation dying off, please.”

“I’ll just let them know that I’ll be incredibly proud if all of my children end up in Slytherin,” Harry said, with a grin. “Which is true, and probably a good thing, since it’s going to happen.”

“Oh, never say never,” Pansy said, laughing. “He might take after you.”

“And Narcissa and Lucius might show up and cheer for Hufflepuff at the next Quidditch match,” Harry said.

“Well, at least Kit will be able to warn us in advance, apparently,” Draco said. “Though I’m with Harry, I can’t wait for the column that asks where we went so dreadfully wrong in our parenting.”

“And then I can comment on _that_ ,” Harry said, happily, leaning to kiss Draco’s cheek. “Gryffindor is the best house, clearly, but Slytherin is the best house for Malfoy-Potters.”

“Now you’re just playing it up,” Draco said, amused.

“Pretty much,” Harry said. “I want to laugh at all the articles about how Voldemort obviously has still has a dark influence on my mind and is warping my children, because I have to find them funny so I don’t have an aneurysm.”

“I did sort of like the one where you told them to go fuck themselves when they did that after we got married and then listed all the benefits of being married to Slytherins,” Pansy mused. “And found that obscure commentary by-law that mandated that they print it.”

“It’s all right, Harry can have the hypothetical fourth kid,” Draco said. “I’m sure it’ll take after him. Completely Gryffindor in every way. It’ll probably be born with a red and gold cap and booties.”

“In which case, the Hat will probably still put it in Slytherin, quit forgetting I nearly went there,” Harry said, laughing. “You might want to rethink accepting that Head of House position.”

“Oh, shut up,” Draco said. “You try to be nice to your husband…”

“Speaking of Heads of House,” Pansy said, cheerfully. “Guess what time it is.”

“Lovely,” Harry said. “Time to shepherd wayward lambs. Don’t forget to say goodnight to Alcyone on your way out.”

“Time to figure out what my son’s done to veela hair,” Pansy said, cheerfully. “Maybe we can use it as an entirely new wand core ingredient.”

“Fleur’s relatives will be thrilled,” Harry said, leaning to kiss Pansy’s cheek. “Good luck, Headmistress.”

“Good luck, Deputy Headmaster,” she said, laughing. “Good luck, Head of Slytherin house. I’d say we’re off to a good start for the year.”

“The day’s not over yet,” Draco warned, laughing. “But all right. Happy Start-of-Term.”

“Happy Start-of-Term,” Harry repeated, and got up to head down the stairs with a smile, Thaxia on his heels.


End file.
